What is the most effective way to start a professional career as a dev?

At some point, theoretical knowledge must turn into practice and before that it is worth to know the answers for a few questions. What kind of skills should young programmers train especially? What is the most effective way to start a professional career as a dev? We asked Jerzy Niemojewski, software development director for some tips.

What skills of young programmers are the most valued by employers?

We should start with basic things – knowledge of technology, programming languages, operating systems: Java, .Net, JavaScript, SQL, Linux – this is the base for further development and in most cases, young students know this stuff. What is less obvious but also crucial, is the ability to build algorithms, practical construction of causal links. It is also worth to mention about solving attitude. Working in the IT industry is always about seeking solutions. It’s a bit like solving Sudoku puzzles – it’s not an art to solve them when someone gives us digits, and we only complete the fields, but the point is to be the person who can reach the solution.

What is the best way to assess skills at the start of a career?

You can easily find examples of tests verifying IT skills, e.g.: examining the level of Java knowledge. However, it doesn’t give an overall picture of the candidate’ skills and predispositions. Some way to check themselves is developing your own projects. Unfortunately, in most cases, this is also not the optimal way to assess. When we start our own project, we usually start with the clean bill and we choose the convenient stack – technologies which suit us. That is why this approach does not give the view of universal skills or problem-solving abilities. When we are limited by technologies, tools or the existing situation, creative, comprehensive thinking and the ability to manage problems is the critical skill. The most effective skills verification takes place after starting a professional career.

Working in the IT industry is always about seeking solutions. It’s a bit like solving Sudoku puzzles – it’s not an art to solve them when someone gives us digits, and we only complete the fields, but the point is to be the person who is able to reach the solution.

So, how can young programmers strengthen their skills?

First of all – self-development. The technology landscape is changing very dynamically. It is crucial to keep current knowledge about IT trends and standards. There are many ways to get it. Study at university, boot camps, self-study – in fact, each of these ways can be a good way. Devoting sufficient time for learning and exploring the subject is the most important.

Without a doubt, regardless of how theoretical knowledge is acquired, must at some point turn into practice. How should effective career kick-of look like?

Clashing with commercial project realities is the first moment where you can really identify shortcomings that young programmers often are not aware of. So it is worth taking care of the right and start a career path as an intern. Usually, internships are focused on “soft” implementation to the “real” world of IT. It helps to assess interns qualifications, preferences and skills. The IT world is a very wide world. Various tasks can be performed. Next to programming, we have designing, analysis, support, system administration etc. Usually, after a 3-month practice, we are able to tell more about young devs preferences and skill.

At this point, the job market is full of internship programs that offer different career options. What distinguishes Savangard Labs from other programs available on the market?

The standard approach to internships is focused mainly on working on a specific project and offloading the company’s resources. The tasks are reduced to individual actions, e.g. writing fragments of code. In fact, it is an imitative work and doesn’t assure complex development. We do this differently. The first 3 months on our internship program are all about intensive, complex learning. This time is filled with various types of tasks. Building applications, administrative tasks, coming up with solutions and implementing them – that are examples of what we prepared to our students. This general approach allows us to assess the real preferences and skills. We want to create a permanent, long-term relationship. Our experience shows that this approach brings the most benefits to both parties and simply works – so far over 80% of students have stayed with us.